Emotions

Being overweight appears related to reduced levels of a molecule that reflects brain cell health in the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory, learning, and emotions, and likely also involved in appetite control, according to a new study.

Mind-body therapies can help cancer patients, and yoga has been shown in numerous studies to help improve the physical and emotional well being of cancer sufferers, raising quality of life both during and after treatment.

A new study has confirmed that prayer helps people resist temptation by maintaining control over their emotions. Since the beginning of time, people have made bad choices based on emotion, rather than thinking things through or pausing to pray and ask God for direction.

Emotional freedom means learning how to stay centered in a stressful, highly emotionally charged world. Since emotions such as fear, anger, and frustration are energies, you can potentially “catch” them from people without realizing it. If you tend to be an emotional sponge, it’s vital to know how to avoid taking on an individual’s negative emotions or the free-floating kind in crowds. Another twist is that chronic anxiety, depression, or stress can turn you into an emotional sponge by wearing down your defenses.

Integrative cardiology is a newer field in the larger scope of integrative medicine. It specializes in treating the heart from a body, mind and emotions perspective and in doing so; decreases the reliance upon using medication alone to help the function of the heart. Since most medications have an average of 70 side effects and some up to 525, it makes good sense to treat the whole person instead of relying on medication to temporarily help the heart function when in the long run it can harm multiple systems, organs and glands.

Increased physical activity is associated with better sexual function in men under 40, according to an Emory University study. The study, published online in the Journal of Sexual Medicine, assessed the association between physical activity and erectile function in young, healthy men ages 18 to 40. Previous studies have suggested that erectile dysfunction in men under 40 is correlated with increased cardiovascular risks.